Sunday was the third and final day of IndieCade East 2014 and, like all great events, it was bittersweet to see it end. There were plenty of great talks and workshops, another full day of Show & Tell games, and an amazing event called the GameSlam in which developers had three minutes to pitch their games quickly and succinctly. We spent most of our time at the GameSlam and checking out some of the talks before heading back home to Philadelphia.
Once again, the Show & Tells section was full of unique and interesting games. Willy Chyr’s Relativity was there in all of its Escher-like beauty. Relativity looks like Portal, but in a world in which you can walk on the walls and ceiling. Each time you change which of the six gravity fields you’re on, the new floor lights up all the same color, to let you know where you can walk.
Another game we saw was Mushroom 11, which was made a few years ago during the Ouroboros-themed Global Game Jam. You play as a blob (what they refer to as a “mysterious amorphic organism”) that uses its mass to solve puzzles and platform across a post-apocalyptic landscape. The game looks strange and unusual, but also remarkable and different.
When we were done, we headed over to the Fox Ampitheater for the GameSlam. I wasn’t sure what to expect, but it turned out to be some of the most fun I had all weekend. Pixeljam’s Mark Denardo was one of the first to go, and he showed off Glorkian Warrior, and asked me to demo it for everyone (since I had played it so much Saturday when he was at Show & Tell) while he pitched it. It all happened so fast that I didn’t even have enough time to get nervous! I just ran up there and played my best.
There were many others – about 20 total – and most of them were games I could see myself really getting into. Henchmen! is an adorable turn-based strategy game played with super villains, while Extreme Exorcism “is Braid meets Super Crate Box,” with a little Super Time Force thrown in: whenever you die, your “ghost” (your previous playthrough) comes back to haunt you, meaning you have to avoid your previous path. Crystal Brawl is a gorgeous two-on-two local multiplayer game of capture the flag (which they referred to as “Gauntlet meets NBA Jam”).
What were my favorites? It’s really hard to say. Sirtet (Tetris spelled backwards) is exactly that – backwards Tetris. You lay out lines and try to make tetriminos with the different colored blocks. (I already bought it for my iPad and I can’t stop playing it.) Treachery in Beatdown City, which has a Kickstarter right now, looks like an absolute blast. Rami Ismail from Vlambeer came in at the last minute and showed off some of the insane weapons in Nuclear Throne, which was hysterical. And I also demoed Threshold and Dry Ice for my friends Zenas Bellace and Shawn Pierre, respectively, so of course I think those games are awesome. Oh, and there was some time left over at the end, so Anthony Amato and I got to pitch our card game, Resistor, which went over really well.
As with Friday and Saturday, there were some great talks and workshops as well. There was a talk that “challenged assumptions about what games and game developers look like to imagine a world where new kinds of play can flourish” (“I’m a Transsexual Witch Poet Gamecrafter and You Can Too”), a game show that pitted six indie game all-stars against each other (“Super Panel Fighter”), and a retrospective on early indie games (“When Users Were Makers – Hobbyist Magazines in the Microcomputer Era”). The final talk was the keynote by Bennet Foddy, best known for creating QUOP, in which he gave an indie State of the Union address to talk about “how the forgotten history of indie game development illuminates the current scene.” There were also three workshops – the GameSlam, one on game design, and another on submitting games to IndieCade.
After the GameSlam, I sat in on the submissions workshop to find out more information on how to submit a game to the festival. Festival Chair Celia Pearce and Festival Director Sam Roberts sat down to give advice and talk about what it takes to be chosen as one of the 36 games showcased each year. Their advice was to make a list of festivals, look at the games you have, and decide where those games belonged thematically. When preparing your submission, you should make instructions on how they can acquire the build of your game very clear and easy. And one thing they stressed above all was to have updated contact information and to reply to them immediately to solve any and all problems – or risk being disqualified.
But the most important point was that you should make it easy to see what is wonderful about the game you’ve created. Don’t just say “My game is wonderful” – show them how. IndieCade is highly competitive – they had over 800 submissions last year, and almost 60% of them were good – and you want to stand out. Your game will go through a jury system, and you will be connected with people who are familiar with the type of game you’ve submitted. It starts at a super juror, and then moves on from there, with all games that were universally loved going to the top, and all of the ones that were universally disliked going to the bottom. Then they sort through all the games in the middle – and if you’re in there, you want something to help you make your way to the top.
IndieCade East 2014 was a memorable experience. The talks, the workshops, the games, and the attendees all blended together into a weekend full of learning, gaming, and making new friends. (I hesitate to say the word “networking” because I like to think that I’m building relationships that will last through the boundaries of where we are all employed.) I highly recommend the experience to anyone who enjoys making and/or playing indie games, and for anyone looking for opportunities for networking and employment – or just ways to get creative with brilliant people.
Day 1 | Day 2 | Day 3
